School Rumble 2nd Term ep.7

May 15, 2006 | 9 Comments

For some reason this episode seems to be a lot better quality-wise. The background scenes have a nicer water-colour painting feel to it, something which I don't think I've noticed before on School Rumble. It's unfortunate the same thing can't be said for the characters. I kind of miss the way they look in the manga and wish the anime can replicate the style. Moving on to other parts of the episode, I found some of the background music used in the episode to be quite good. They remind me of lounge jazz music that are often played in those atmospheric jazz club and parlours. It's the kind of music that I'd listen to if I'm trying to relax. Overall, this was an entertaining episode but it's definitely not as good as last week's. The second half of the episode suffers a bit due to the amount of stories that the animators tried to condense.

The episode begins with a mini sequence where Eri makes some Onigiri and then offers them to her classmates. They, of course, refuses right away, leaving her puzzled. All of a sudden, however, Tenma appears and offers to eat Eri's hand-made Onigiri if Eri does the reverse. So the girls take their pick and stuff that delicious triangle sensation into their mouth. Of course they are horrified once they realised what a horrible cook the other girl turns out to be. After the credits, Tenma, Yakumo, Mikoto, Eri, and Akira are seen walking together towards the mountain. It appears that they're planning to have a picnic and decided to take Harima and Hanai along as baggage carriers. Both boys find it hard to carry the heavy luggage but Harima perseveres after he gets a dose of his own imagination where Tenma is happy to spend time a lone with him. Hanai, on the other hand, finds out that the reason his luggage is heavy is because Imadori is hiding inside it.

After a while the group finds a perfect place to eat and is about to devour their ration but when Tenma opens the lunchbox, it only contains white rice. It appears that she forgot to bring the dishes that Yakumo left on top of the table. Because they have nothing else to eat, Tenma threatens to make them some killer Onigiri. Eri excitedly exclaims that she also wants to help Tenma making some. In order to stop both girls from poisoning everyone else, Harima tells them that he'll cook for them instead. Harima becomes especially excited after Tenma tells him that guys who can cook are cool. Hanai, however, does not want to be left out in the cold and therefore, end up competing with Harima to see who can cook the best food. Imadori is also keen to join the competition and demands that Mikoto gives him a kiss if he wins. He immediately receives a kiss from Mikoto's fist. Akira tells the boys that they can cook anything providing that they use ingredients that they find themselves.

Harima decides to go to the riverside to catch a few fish but upon catching one, he realises that it's nothing special. Therefore, when he spots a gigantic crab, he decides to gamble his life to catch it. At the same time, Hanai is seen picking mushrooms to substitute meat. He, however, immediately changes his mind when he spots a wild boar inside the forest. Once the boys get the ingredients, they begin to cook the food except for Imadori, who ended up falling asleep while trying to pick up some ingredients. Much to the girl's surprise, however, Imadori has prepared some delicious Curry Rice for them to judge. As it turns out, however, Imadori was using an instant Curry powder called Guru-guru Curry. Because of this he is being disqualified right away by Akira. Because he's desperate to win, Imadori quickly prepares a new Curry, one that is in the shape of Mikoto's large bazoomas. He immediately receives another kiss from Mikoto's fist for his effort.

The next on the line is Harima and his crab stir-fry. The dish is so delicious that it makes Tenma and the other girls go stark nekkid. Unfortunately for Harima, Itoko and Youko have also come to get a taste and they think his dish lacks salt. The next on the line is Hanai and his Nabe dish, which does looks delicious. This time around, not only the girls ended up naked, they also having a Mononoke Hime hallucination involving the wild board. This vision eventually causes them to cry bucketload. But just like Harima's dish, Hanai's dish lack a seasoning. Eventually, Akira decides to call the chairman of the judging committee, Karasuma. Karasuma decides to call upon the help of Suzuki Masaru, Eri's maid, who has arrived with some delicious roast. Tenma immediately praises Karasuma's decision and the same can be said with Yakumo. As a result, both Harima and Hanai lose their spirit, effectively ending the first half of the episode.

In the second part of the episode, some characters are trying to get part time job. Harima, for example, tries to enter the world of anime by applying for a position at Tokyo TV. Meanwhile, Sara and Asou have to take care a Chinese restaurant when the owner has to go all of a sudden. Yakumo works for a cafe but she becomes embarassed when the owner wants her to wear bunny suit. Hanai happens to walk past the place where she works and gets overexcited upon seeing the notice board that they now have bunny girl. Unfortunately for Hanai, the restaurant has an entirely different idea of the kind of bunny girl that they want to show. Nishimoto has asked his friends to help with his family business, a video rental place. In the middle of helping out, however, Nara finds a door behind a shelf. Nishimoto tells them that there's no turning back to this world after one enters that door. Despite this, they still insist on going inside.

At the same time, Ichijou is seen working at Was Burger (a take of Mos Burger chain in Japan). Imadori comes to the place and wants to order the kids meal so he can get the action figure. Ichijou tries to tell him that he can't do this but Imadori calls him stingy. Lala is not happy to hear this and proceeds to beat the living hell out of Imadori. Tenma, on the other hand, works as a bread packaging girl in a bakery. Unfortunately for her, her work gets tougher and tougher to the point she starts hallucinating of seeing Karasuma's face on the bread. Akira, on the other hand, claims that she works at a bookstore because there aren't that many customers. Unknown to Eri, Akira's real job is actually some sort of secret agent. When everyone goes home that night, Akira is seen riding a motorbike with a boy trying to avoid a guy with a machine gun. This sequence basically connects her story to everyone else's story since she moves from one area to another.

Impression:

The first part was okay, it reminds me of the cooking segment from SMAP X SMAP and the over-the-top reaction reminds me a lot of Yakitate!! Japan. It was hard to concentrate on the story since I was to busy imagining how the food will taste. Moreover, it was kind of obvious that neither Harima nor Hanai will ever win no matter what they do. I do wonder how often this kind of joke will be used in the series. While it's still funny, I am kind of hoping for some kind of progression. The second half of the episode is simply a weak version of Pulp Fiction where all of the characters' lives intersect at one point. In this case, Akira's motorbike chase sequence basically connects everyone's story. Some of the mini stories contained in the episode is quite amusing. I especially love Was Burger because it reminds me so much of Mos Burger, definitely one of the more delicious Burger chains I've ever visited. The price of the burgers are more expensive than the typical Burger chain but the Burgers are worth it. They usually are cooked on the spot after you ordered it.

© memento 2003